Hay that was once formed into relatively small rectangular bales is now typically formed into larger round bales typically weighing 800 to over 1000 pounds. On a farm, these bales are lying in the field where they were harvested, with their axis horizontal (parallel to the ground). Typically they are moved with a farm tractor having a front end loader attachment fitted with a spike which enters one of the flat ends of the bale, so it can be lifted off the ground before moving it to another location.
Several types of round bale feeders which surround a bale either on the ground or on a raised platform are also available from suppliers. These are used to contain the bale during the feeding of animals such as horses, cattle or sheep. Many of these are designed to accept a round bale that has been flipped from the horizontal axis onto one of its flat ends so that the axis is now perpendicular to the ground. This not an easy task and requires the hydraulics of a tractor or other apparatus to grasp the horizontal bale and rotate it 90 degrees, before depositing it onto a feeder.
A round bale feeder for horses is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,789,504 B1 of O'Neill. It is formed of several rings spaced apart by straight members and welded into a stand with a horizontal axis and raised on a base which spaces it from the ground. It accepts round bales from either end after a door is opened. It does eliminate the need to rotate the round bale 90 degrees prior to loading into the feeder. The chore of loading the feeder of O'Neill must be performed precisely by an experienced person since the alignment of a spiked round bale on a front loader requires skill in guiding it into the enclosure formed by the several rings. This is especially problematic considering that round bales can be more than five feet in diameter, and may not be perfectly round due to the settling of the heavy round bale. The situation is further hampered by poor visibility around the bale, for the equipment operator moving the suspended hay bale. Only larger diameter rings on the feeder, which add material bulk and weight to the feeder, ameliorate some of the loading problems.